By the deadline of 2 p.m. Monday, the Mass. Gaming Commission received 15 total sports betting operator applications including just six applications for the seven available mobile-only betting licenses, the commission said.
Plainridge Park Casino, MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor each applied for in-person betting licenses; they are the only entities eligible for those licenses.
The Gaming Commission is working to implement legal wagering in Massachusetts with a target of "late January" to start in-person betting at the casinos and slots parlor. Five companies submitted applications to run mobile betting in conjunction with the casinos: WynnBet and Caesars Sportsbook to partner with Encore, BetMGM to partner with MGM Springfield, and Penn Sports Interactive and Fanatics Sportsbook to partner with Plainridge. Six companies applied Monday for mobile or online betting licenses not tied to a casino or slots parlor.
Massachusetts's betting law capped the number of those mobile-only wagering licenses at seven and regulators got interest in the licenses from about two dozen companies. When the Gaming Commission set an "early March" target for the launch of online betting, commissioners said that timeline could be delayed if they got a large number of applications.
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The six companies that applied by Monday's deadline are: Bally Bet, Betr, Betway (DGC USA), DraftKings, FanDuel, and PointsBet. One mobile betting company, bet365, filed an application to eventually partner with Raynham Park, which was not subject to Monday's deadline.
The applications received by Monday's deadline will be reviewed during public meetings of the Gaming Commission. The commission said Monday that more information on the scheduling of those meetings is forthcoming.
Each company that applied for a sports betting license also had to submit a non-refundable $200,000 application fee by Monday. That means the Gaming Commission took in $3 million in application fees Monday. That money goes into a new Sports Wagering Control Fund at the commission's control to "finance the operational activities of the commission pertaining to sports wagering," according to the state's wagering law.
